274 CLASS XVI. ORDER V. 



Flowers shorter than the spathe, purple. Germs smooth or a 

 little villous. Petals six, spreading, terminated by a point. — 

 June, July. — Perennial. 



DECANDRIA. 



299. GERANIUM. 

 Geranium maculatum. L. Spotted Geranium or Crancsbill. 



Peduncles two flowered; stem forked, erect ; leaves 

 five parted and cut, the upper ones sessile. L. 



American Medical Botany, PI. viii. 

 No family of plants is more extensively cultivated for orna- 

 ment than the Linna^an genus Geranium, since divided by L'He- 

 ritier into three genera, Erodium, Pelargonium, and Geranium. 

 It must be confessed that a great number of exotic species are 

 carefully propagated in green houses and parlors, which are 

 altogether inferior to the present very beautiful native. It is 

 very common about fences and the edges of woods, preferring a 

 soil that is somewhat moist. Stems erect, hairy, dividing by 

 forks, or more numerous branches, one or two feet high. Leaves 

 large, spreading, hairy, divided in a palmate manner into five or 

 seven lobes, Avhich are variously cut and toothed at their ex- 

 tremities, the lower ones petioled, the upper ones nearly sessile. 

 As the leaves grow old, they are usually marked with pale spots 

 about the sinuses. Peduncles long, hairy, supporting about two 

 flowers. Calyx five leaved, those edges, which are outermost in 

 the bud, hairy. Petals rounded, purple. Fruit ending in a long 

 beak, containing five awns, which spring out and scatter the seeds 

 when ripe. The root is perennial, very astringent, and useful 

 for its medicinal properties. — May, June. — Perennial. 



Geranium Robertianum. L. Herb Robert. 



Peduncles two flowered ; leaves somewhat pedate, 

 pinnatifid, five angled ; calyx ten angled, capsules 

 rugged. Sni. 



A branching plant, much smaller in its flowers and leaves than 

 the preceding. Stem spreading, fragile, commonly of a reddish 

 cast. Leaves somewhat hairy, petioled, ternate or quinate, the 



